Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 7, Wheels, Steering Column and Dashboard

Here's the completed Steering wheel and steering column assembly. There's not much to note about this other than the steering wheel is supposed to be wood. It's shown here as provided in the kit, pre-painted. I will probably do something to get a better finished wood look. The flat brown paint isn't cutting it. 

Front wheels, tires and brake assemblies are done. These are surprisingly heavy with stout rubber tires and metal wheel rims (the spokes are plastic).

I repainted the disc brakes to get a circular pattern. They were plain silver painted flat surfaces before. I'm not sure mine look a whole lot better. I am still trying to get this technique right. I also painted the calliper. The rest of the brake part is black metal.

The dashboard as instrument panel was provided as solid black plastic. After a good deal of searching and studying photos of the real car, I concluded that the dash has painted gloss black parts, painted flat black parts, and black leather parts. In fact the whole interior consists of those surfaces, plus grey leather and carpet.

Anyway, a time consuming, multi-step masking process was called for. 

The provided (black plastic) instrument panel has silver bezels and a clear "glass" already cemented to the back. Rather than take it apart, I masked the dials with old rodico. 

I used Nato black, which is slightly greenish. This color matches the slightly oxidized shade I see in photos of the interior's flat black surfaces. 

I just painted over the pre-painted silver knobs and such, and repainted them silver afterwards.

For black leather, I left the semi-gloss, slightly textured black plastic. The high density color in this type of plastic looks pretty good as-is. 

The surround over the driver's instruments is gloss black in the real car. I just sprayed a clear gloss on the plastic. The inside faces of the dashboard are the Nato black from Tamiya. 

The masking was a pain, but I'm happy with the result. There are a few other materials, it appears, used on the controls themselves, so I'll be touching in a few more details with paint.

See all the posts for this project here.